From God's own country, a carpet for screen demigods

Economic Times

07-05-2025

Kochi: On the wooden floors of centuries-old synagogues in Fort Kochi and beneath the feet of Shah Rukh Khan and Rihanna at this week's Met Gala lies an unlikely connection: carpets crafted in a small coastal town that most Indians probably wouldn't locate on a map.
ADVERTISEMENT For the third time in four years, Neytt by Extraweave, a sustainable rug company based out of Cherthala in Kerala's Alappuzha district, has supplied the sprawling wall-to-wall carpet for fashion's most photographed event.
At a time when many traditional crafts struggle to find their place in the modern economy, this Kerala-based company has pulled off the textile equivalent of landing on the moon. Their Made-in-Cherthala carpet, stretching across 63,000 square feet of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's entrance, has become the literal foundation for fashion's most exclusive night, a striking reversal for an industry struggling with obsolescence.
The rags-to-riches story is particularly startling in Cherthala, a town in Alappuzha district where its traditional weaving was once sought after globally but has now almost faded into obscurity. Alappuzha is known as the "Venice of the East" for its network of trade-facilitating canals. Coir production in Alappuzha dates back to 1859, when James Darragh, an Irish-American entrepreneur, established India's first coir factory here. The area later gained geographical indication status for "Alleppey Coir" in 2007, though few outside the industry took notice.Neytt's origin story represents the unlikely revival of the sector. In 2019, after returning from Boston with an MBA, Sivan Santhosh and his artist wife Nimisha Srinivas established Neytt as a premium brand under the Extraweave umbrella. The startup has rapidly transformed into a ₹120-crore business and a global sensation, but its roots trace back more than a century through Sivan's family.
Santhosh's great-grandfather, K Velayudhan, established the Travancore Mats and Matting Company in 1917, beginning a legacy that has supplied floor coverings to some of the world's most prestigious addresses, from Camp David to Saudi Arabian palaces, and global retailers like IKEA for over 70 years, quietly exporting Kerala craftsmanship while few took notice.
ADVERTISEMENT "We have been in the business for more than a hundred years," Santhosh explains. "But we wanted to change the narrative."
Reviving Traditional Craft
ADVERTISEMENT "These traditional crafts declined partly because the jobs didn't pay well, but also because they lacked prestige," says Santhosh. "Young people want work that offers both better income and social recognition." Kannan KU, research and development manager at Neytt, is an example. A degree in computer science and an MBA were supposed to be his ticket away from the coir spinning his mother once did. Yet, on Wednesday, he was beaming with pride while installing a handcrafted rug at a Fort Kochi synagogue. Like most of his colleagues back at Neytt's factory, he watched in amazement as their creation became the most photographed surface in global fashion this week."My family and friends all asked-Is this really the company where you work?" Kannan recalls with a laugh. His college classmates, who are stuck at executive positions while he is donning a managerial role at Neytt, were stunned, asking, "Oh, you're working at such a big company?" The bonus: the factory is just five minutes away from his home.
ADVERTISEMENT In 2022, when Neytt first supplied the Met Gala carpet, things were pretty quiet-"nobody knew such rugs were coming from Kerala," says Kannan. By 2023, Neytt announced their contribution on social media, and watched in astonishment as their posts received four million views.This year, it has exploded into an even bigger social media phenomenon, with millions of views across Instagram and fashion platforms like Diet Sabya transforming an ancient craft into a viral sensation and putting Cherthala on the global design map.
ADVERTISEMENT Suddenly, with the likes of Kerala industries minister P Rajeev congratulating them on social media, the 900 employees, who have decades of experience in traditional weaving techniques in the 15-acre factory with nearly half of them women, are no longer just anonymous craftspeople; they've become celebrities in their communities."We wouldn't have touched this success without the expertise of the skilled workers," says Santhosh. He explains the manufacturing process behind the Met Gala carpet, which borders on obsessive. It starts with importing sisal fiber from Madagascar-"that's where you get the best quality, the whitest and longest finer," Santhosh explains-then spending months hand-sorting, dyeing, spinning and weaving.
Quality inspections occur at every stage, as "any defect in even a small quantity will show in streaks." The carpet must withstand "the pressure of a lot of celebrities' heels walking on it in various outfits," making durability as important as aesthetics.